Menzieshill High School was a co-educational secondary school located in the

Menzieshill Menzieshill is a suburb and community council area in the city of Dundee, Scotland. It is located in the west of the city, and is immediately north west of Blackness and the West End, west of Lochee, east of Gowrie Park and south of Charle ...

area of

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

, Scotland. The last head teacher was Helen Gray. The school closed on 1 July 2016.

History

Menzieshill High School was constructed with a cost under £1 million and opened in 1971. The school was one of Dundee's first comprehensive schools, accepting pupils from all backgrounds and regardless of their academic abilities. Menzieshill High School was one of the first schools in Dundee to offer home economics for boys and woodwork for girls.

Closure

Entrance to Menzieshill High School (geograph 4994632)

In November 2014, Dundee City Council proposed to close Menzieshill High School and move the pupils to

Harris Academy Harris Academy is a co-educational comprehensive school in the West End of Dundee, Scotland. Harris Academy was founded in 1885 and is the oldest state school in Dundee. Harris Academy is also one of the largest state run schools in Dundee in ...

in 2016, when the new Harris building on Perth Road was built. The public consultation closed on 27 February 2015 and a final decision on whether to close the school was made on 22 June 2015 where 18 councillors voted in favour of the closure with 14 councillors against. Menzieshill Reverend Bob Mallinson said he would keep the fight going on and take it to

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, but the government did not approve nor debate on the issue, confirming that the school would close as scheduled. A senior SNP councillor said pupils would enjoy "better facilities" at Harris Academy. There was a 'Save Menzieshill High' campaign which aimed to persuade the council to save the school. A public meeting was organised at Menzieshill Parish Church with the support of the Dundee branch of the

Scottish Socialist Party The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP; gd, Pàrtaidh Sòisealach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Socialist Pairtie) is a left-wing political party campaigning for the establishment of an independent socialist Scotland. The party was founded in 1998. It c ...

and non-partisan local activists. Dozens of parents and pupils went on to demonstrate outside

Dundee City Chambers Dundee City Chambers is a municipal facility in City Square, Dundee, Scotland. The city chambers, which is headquarters of Dundee City Council, is a Category B listed building. History The building was commissioned to replace the old town house ...

while the council was setting its budget on 12 February.

Pupils

The school catered for six hundred pupils aged between eleven-and-a-half to eighteen in First to Sixth Year, and admitted pupils from the Gowrie Park,

, Charleston,

Lochee Lochee () is an area in the west of Dundee, Scotland. Until the 19th century, it was a separate town, but was eventually surrounded by the expanding Dundee. It is notable for being home to Camperdown Works, which was the largest jute production ...

and Dryburgh catchment areas of Dundee, as well as the villages of

Longforgan Longforgan is a village and parish in the Carse of Gowrie, in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It lies west of Dundee on the main A90 road. History A record survives of Sir Patrick Gray, as Baron of Longforgan, holding a baronial court here in 13 ...

and

Inchture Inchture ( gd, Innis Tùir) is a village in Scotland between Dundee and Perth on the northern side of the Firth of Tay. It is approximately nine miles (14 km) from Dundee city centre and 13 miles (21 km) from Perth. The village is bypa ...

. This territory consists of a mixture of privately owned and council housing. The feeder primary schools were: *Gowriehill Primary School *Hillside Primary School *Camperdown Primary School (formerly Lochee primary and Charleston Primary school *Longforgan Primary School *Inchture Primary School *Dryburgh Primary School (until closure in 1985)

Houses

Pupils at the school were organised into four

houses A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

: Aberfeldy,

Fortingall Fortingall is a small village in highland Perthshire, Scotland, in Glen Lyon. Its nearest sizable neighbours are Aberfeldy and Kenmore. Its Gaelic name is ''Fartairchill'' (lit. "Escarpment Church"—i.e. "church at the foot of an escarpmen ...

Weem WEEM-FM (91.7 FM broadcasting, FM) is a student-run high school radio station of Pendleton Heights High School in Pendleton, Indiana. It broadcasts in the Contemporary hit radio, CHR music format. The station is owned by South Madison Community S ...

and Culdares which are all named after Scottish villages associated with Clan Menzies.

Badge and colours

The school badge consisted of a red, equilateral triangle supported by two grey trapezoids. The triangle represented the school; it was equilateral to show the school's commitment to equality of opportunity (as one of Dundee's first comprehensive schools, it did not select its pupils based on academic ability). The trapezoids represented the buildings immediately surrounding the school in Menzieshill, many of which were grey and trapezoidal, whilst the green represented the abundant grassland that characterized the area. The badge, therefore, showed that the school was at the heart of the community and was supported by it. Together, these elements formed a stylized "M" for Menzieshill. Originally, the school colours were those of the school badge – bottle green, grey, and red – with the addition of black. The bottle-green blazers were highly distinctive but were later replaced by more traditional black ones. In the 1970s, the school uniform stipulated that other items had to be in "the school colours", which allowed pupils of both sexes to dress entirely (shirt, jumper, and trousers) in bottle-green or bright red if they so wished. Later, the uniform was changed to stipulate black or grey for trousers, although there was some leeway for "self-coloured" shirts and jumpers.

References

External links

Menzieshill High School homepageMenzieshill High School's page on Scottish Schools Online
{{authority control Defunct secondary schools in Dundee Educational institutions established in 1971 Educational institutions disestablished in 2016 1971 establishments in Scotland 2016 disestablishments in Scotland